Formosa increases capacity for new Texas cracker, PDH unit

18 June 2013 20:34[Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Formosa Plastics has revised the capacity of the new ethane cracker it is building in Point Comfort, Texas, with it now being 1.15m tons/year (1.0m tonnes/year), versus the 800,000 tonnes/year that the company initially announced, a spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.

Formosa revealed the updated capacity in a permit application, filed with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In addition to the cracker, Formosa Plastics also plans to build a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, which will have a propylene capacity of 725,000 tons/year (658,000 tonnes/year), the permit said. That is slightly larger than the 600,000 tonne/year capacity that Formosa Plastics initially announced in 2012.

The permits did not indicate the capacity for the low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plant that Formosa Plastics also plans to build in Point Comfort.

In 2012, Formosa Plastics said that the LDPE unit will have a capacity of 300,000 tonnes/year.

In another permit, Formosa Plastics said the plant will be able to produce several grades of LDPE, including those that use vinyl acetate as a co-monomer.

Propylene could also be introduced into the reaction system as a modifier to produce certain grades of LDPE, Formosa said in the permit.

The LDPE plant as well as the cracker and the on-purpose-propylene unit should start operations in 2016, the company said.